Let’s Debate: Surrogate mother below poverty line

Posted by admin on Oct 2, 2010 in Issues & Ideas | 1 comment

A new trend in the West is, if you cannot conceive your own child, to use a surrogate mother in India. This process costs tens of thousands of dollars and frequently uses poor women who already have children so they will not become attached to the Western baby. The money the Indian woman makes is more than she could make in many years of working on her own.
When it comes to surrogate mothers below the poverty line, is it exploitation or not?

No. By: Nathan Tedrow – The issue with this question is that North Americans always jump to the word “exploitation.” We automatically assume that sending lower-paying jobs overseas is a form of injustice, when in reality the people there are just willing to do the jobs for cheaper. This is the reason that when you phone a call centre, they’re not North Americans picking up,

We have formed lofty opinions of ourselves that would tell us that we are “above” some jobs. Those in poverty-stricken countries see these job offerings as a blessing for them and their families. They recognize that any income is better than no income. While Canadians and Americans struggle with “loss of jobs,” those from developing countries continue to make a comfortable living in janitorial, housekeeping, maintenance, and manufacturing careers. They often come to our countries and pick up jobs that many North Americans would be unwilling to do.

They have humility.

Similarly, women in poverty-stricken areas have the opportunity to make money by being surrogate mothers. These women that carry the children of North American couples are paid significantly less than their North American counterparts, but they continue to do it because they see the wage as worth the “job.” That being said, I would suggest that the actual question we should be considering is, “Why aren’t more North American women willing to donate their bodies to surrogacy?” Should American women charge so much to be a surrogate mother? It seems as though they should be willing to take the pay decrease if they want to keep North American babies on the continent. Our options seem to be: work for less, and get the “jobs” back; or let the poverty-stricken areas make money. Is the second option such a horrible fate? It seems more like the North American people are trying to monopolize the market for surrogacy. Granted, I’m sure that there are people that have set up human trafficking businesses that would be completely illegal in America, but if we’re willing to hold onto any morality as a society, we should never even come in contact with these groups.

North Americans live such entitled lives compared to the rest of the world. So, should we embrace it, or lower ourselves to the same standards as developing countries so that our children are born of North American women?

Yes. By: Kayla Busby – Everything is cheaper overseas right? You can get your clothing, electronics, jewellery, and so on at a fraction of the price, even if the true cost is some severely underpaid people working to produce and sell you goods. Now we are at a point where you can even get your baby overseas: again costing only a fraction of what you would pay in the West.

Sure, I can understand the pain of being infertile and I understand that many people (even in the West) can’t afford the exuberant prices of surrogacy out here; however, that does not justify sending the market overseas. Right now it is good, often the surrogate mothers are set up in good clinics, get paid well and are under the supervision of qualified staff, but what happens when commercial surrogacy catches on even more and then baby farms become the new black market trade? Then it will become exploitation with no significant financial gains for the surrogate mother and guess what they will probably still do it, no matter the health risk or minimal financial gains because really do they have much of an option?

These women do it for their families, which is admirable, but their circumstances–their poverty–is what motivates them to rent out their womb. Right now I feel that commercial surrogacy is walking a thin line nearing the title of exploitation. Soon it will become utter exploitation, once the prices drop and the women can no longer break the poverty cycle.